Before The Games
by Tenebris Umbra
Summary: young haymitch is about to go into the games. is he going to come out alive? who knows?


I wake up with the feeling of dread. My eyes refusing to open and my head is pounding. Today is the worst of all days. Reaping Day. I'm just about to close my eyes to try to go back to sleep when I hear my mother screeching at me from the kitchen to get up and complaining about how lazy I am. Finally I roll over and as soon as my feet hit the floor I knew that today will be horrible. I walk out to the kitchen/living room of our "house". Really it's not big enough to be called a house, it's more like a shake that has been worked on for years by my father and I. The "house"has only two bedrooms and a kitchen. My brothers and I share the one room while my father and mother share the other.  
As I walk into the kitchen i see my youngest brother just sitting there smirking at me. He is to young to have his name in the reaping ball, but would gladly see my name pulled from it.  
"Enjoy you sleep Haymitch? I hope so because i have a feeling your going to be called to the Games this year." he chirps at me with the lightest tone he can manage. He is about to continue when our mother smacks the back of his head and hisses  
"Don't be rude to your brother, he and Micheal are the reason you had food on the table all year. You should be grateful to them." Now I know my mother and I never really get a long with each other but it's time like this where I have to respect her.  
"Yea kid just think next year your name is going to be in that ball with all of ours." I laugh at him knowing the though terrifies him. Mom looks over at me with rueful eyes that say 'don't push it' I give her a sly smile and say  
"I'm going to see a friend. I'll be back in a bit." and I hurry out the door.  
I walk over to Cole Everdeen's house. His mom must have seen me coming because she meet me at the door and said  
"If your looking for Cole he is out right now." Cole's mom looks towards the wood that surround the fence. The fence is suppose to be there for our protection, or at least that's what the people in the Capitol say. But I say it's there to keep us in, so that the people of district 12 don't try to escape. I walk over to the Meadow that is just beside Cole's house and walk over to the fence. I lean my ear towards the fence to see if it's charged-which it's suppose to be- but it's not so I climb under where Cloe has dug a little hole to go in and out of the District. Cole doesn't have a big family seeing as it's only him and his mom, but he still hunts for fresh meat and sells some of it in the Hob. The Hob is sort of the black market in the district it's for people like Cole to sell meat and roots to the people of the District . But if Cole ever gets caught the it could mean his head, literally. Hunting his punishable by death. Another one of the Capitols stupid laws that have been put in place "for our safety".

I walk to the spot that Cole usually sits to hunt. But he isn't here. So I just sit on one of the rocks and wait for him to show up. Not to long am I sitting there when Cole walks up with three squirrels a duck, and two fish. He looks up at me and I give him a small wave. Cole has dark brown hair that is just under his ears and has deep brown eyes. The girls at school pretty much trip over them selves when he walks past them.  
"Nice haul today don't you think?" asks Cole beaming at me.  
"Yea you got a lot today, but how are you going to get that past all the Peacekeepers. It is Reaping Day and the square is swarmed with them." I say back concerned for my friend.  
"I won't get caught, but it's a good thing you came out here today. I could use your help skinning these." he says and hands my a knife. I grab a squirrel and cut into it's flesh. Soon enough we have all of his game skinned and clean. Cole ties up the furs and wraps up the meat and puts it all in his bag as we head back to the fence. We walk in silence which is fine with me. I know he is thinking about the Reaping just as I am. It's come to my mind that Cole is lucky in a way. Lucky in the way that yes he might have to put his name in for Tessera but he is lucky that it's only him and his mom and he doesn't have a big family. Some people in the Seam have up the three or four kids like my family. The Seam in "our" section of the city. It's where all the people live who can't afford a big house, only the little shakes we live in.  
"Haymitch. You okay, you seem tense?" Asks Cole as he looks over at me.  
"Yea I'm fine." I say, yea I might be a little nervous but that's because I have my name in the ball forty times. Cole looks at me as if he doesn't believe me but doesn't question my answer. Finally him and I are standing in the Meadow just a stones throw away from his house. But instead of walking over to his house we walk towards the town square. We head over to the Hob, which was used to hold coal before there was a fire. The people of District 12 helped rebuild it. The Peacekeepers got really suspicious when most of the Seam and some of the shops chipped in the build the place, but no one said anything. When we walk in everyone greets Cole with a smile and a couple of people pat him on the shoulder as he passes. We walk up to the shop keeper who has a huge scar down the side of his face. Cole looked unfazed by the man but it's understandable considering that he came in here everyday of the week. The shop keeper looked pleased with the fish he got. He dropped some money into Cole's hand and we moved to the next stall. All there was left when we left was a squirrel and a file of fish and some roots and berries that he had picked.  
We wondered around the town square and around the shops selling berries and root and buying different things with the bit of money Cole got. As we passed the bakery I seen her. Ivy Night sitting infront of her house. She is the healer's daughter and she was one of the prettiest girls in my grade. She has light blonde hair and pretty blue eyes that are almost the color of the sky on a clear day. I stabbed my elbow into Cole's side and nodded my head towards Ivy. Smiling at me he says  
"Why don't you go talk to her. I think one of her friends said she likes you." I look at him and look back at Ivy.  
"I personally think your crazy, to think that she would like someone like me. Why don't you go talk to her?" I say He looks at me and his smile widens as he says  
"Well I have to talk to her I have herbs for her mother from the woods." and he pushes me towards Ivy's house. She looks up at us from the book she was reading and smiles at Cole.  
"Hello Cole, Haymitch." she says cheerfully. Cole holds up the bag a little and Ivy Smiles at him and shows us inside her house.  
"Mom, Cole is here with the herbs you asked for!" She looks back at us and asks us to stay where we are as she goes and gets her mom. We both nod and she takes off her shoes and walks into the kitchen of her house. Her house is so much bigger than both mine and Cole's house combined. With Ivy being the healer's daughter she gets to live in the town and gets a decent house. After a short wait Ivy's mom walks into the room and gives Cole a hug like his somehow related to them. They walked into the dinning room leaving me and Ivy alone.  
"How have you been?" I ask Ivy she looks at me and gives me a small smile and says almost shyly  
"I've been alright but I'm kinda nervous for the Reaping. I know it's stupid but I am you know." I nod because I do know how it feels.  
"Well you have really nothing to worry about at least you don't have to take the Tessera for you family. And you name is only in the ball what like six or seven times?" I ask  
"Seven, I guess I'm pretty lucky. How many times is your name in the ball?" She looks almost concerned for me.  
"Forty time but it's alright at least I kept my family feed for the year." Her eyes and mine meet for a slight second before she looked away. The silence between us is awful but is broken by Cole and coming out of the dinning room.  
We were walking down the street when Cole turned to me and asked  
"So what did you two talk about?"  
"Nothing really she said she was nervous about the Reaping and then it was all awkward between us." Cole just laughed. I started to laugh to when he finally said  
"Speaking of the Reaping we should get heading back home the Reaping is in about an hour or so." I nod and we start walking towards home. Just outside my door he turns to me and says "Here have this it's for dinner for you family tonight." And hands me some roots and the squirrel. I look up at him and say  
"What about you? What are you and your family going to eat?" He opens his bag and shows me the roots and something that's wrapped up. I look at him and say  
"I can't just take this you and your mom need to eat." and I try to give it back to him but he starts walking away and he waves over his shoulder. I mumble under my breath at him.

When I walk into the house my mom has a light brown blouse and a gray skirt on. She looks really nice. She turns and takes the roots and squirrel out of my hands and tells me to go get ready and how I made her worry that I was going to be late. I just roll my eyes at her and walk into my room where there are my older brother's old cloths sitting on the bed just waiting for me to put on.


End file.
